> He acknowledges that serious talent exists. By writing my comment I meant that a serious talent is not enough Also: https://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-a

> He acknowledges that serious talent exists. By writing my comment I meant that a serious talent is not enough Also: https://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-advice/work-hard/ https://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-advice/work-hard/ >Relying on intelligence alone to pull things off at the last minute may work for a while, but, generally speaking, at the graduate level or higher it doesn’t. >One needs to do a serious amount of reading and writing, and not just thinking, in order to get anywhere serious in mathematics; contrary to public opinion, mathematical breakthroughs are not powered solely (or even primarily) by “Eureka” moments of genius, but are in fact largely a product of hard work, directed of course by experience and intuition. (See also “the cult of genius“.)